1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for accessing a network.
2. Description of Related Art
Presently, network devices provide access to networks for users. For example, a user accesses a wide area network through the user's network device and through network devices located at Central Offices. Additionally, the user accesses local area networks and metropolitan area networks through network devices. For example, the user can access a network using time division multiplexing (TDM) based network devices (e.g. T1 or video) or packet switching based network devices (e.g., Ethernet).
Unfortunately, the network devices do not provide for optimal allocation of bandwidth, timeslots, and clock cycles for users. For example, a user is allocated a timeslot of fixed duration or multiple timeslots of fixed duration, regardless of the user's specific needs. In particular, the user may only need a fraction of a timeslot or a non-integer multiple of the timeslot. This results in a fraction of the allocated timeslot being unused. Thus, the unused fraction of the allocated timeslot results in wasted bandwidth.
Another problem with existing network devices is that they do not provide for efficient reallocation of bandwidth for users. This comes from the fact that the user's requirements for bandwidth may change. For example, a user's company may experience growth, and thus the user will require more bandwidth. Existing TDM network devices provide for a fixed allocation of bandwidth, timeslots, and clock cycles for the user. Therefore, extensive, expensive and timely reconfigurations must be performed for the reallocation of additional bandwidth for the user. Furthermore, the user must place an order with a service provider to obtain the extensive reconfigurations after a long waiting period for network provision.
In addition, very often users need a mixture of TDM and packetized data streams. The use of TDM-only network devices for transmitting packetized data streams suffers from the sub-optimal allocation of network access bandwidth. This is because the bursty transmission nature of the packetized data stream is difficult to allocate “just-right” bandwidth without wasting bandwidth and dropping data packets. Furthermore, the use of packet switching network devices for transmitting TDM data creates problems in delivering continuous data streams (e.g. video) without interruption.